Yitzi’s Parshah Preview Vayechi

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This weeks Parsha Preview is co-dedicated to the refuah of Sara bat Hodda, Avraham Moshe Ben Miriam Tova and Kyla Chaya Bat Sarah Polson may Hashem grant them all a complete recovery very soon.

I am amazed at how each Shabbat I hear names and names of people who want a Misheberach for healing and yet with opportunity to have some learning done on the behalf of a person who needs a refuah the response to date has been very low. All you have to do is send me the person’s name and the name of their mother in Hebrew and I will dedicate the Parshah Preview to their good health. There is no charge for this benefit.

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday break.

Happy Birthday to my friends who will celebrate Birthday's this coming week:

Happy Birthday to:

Yosef Levi

Audrey Allloul

Shlomo Assayag

Leon Sibony

Michael Benchetrit

“Ad Meyah Vesrim Shannah”

Vayechi

Genesis 47:28-50:26

Candle Lighting in Toronto 4:33 P.M.

Candle Lighting in Thornhill 4:33 P.M.

Main characters of this week’s Parsha

Yaakov

Yosef

Manasseh

Ephraim

Yaakov

Yehudah

Levi

Reuven

Benyamin

Yaakov lives the final 17 years of his life in Egypt. Before his passing, he asks Yoseph to take an oath that he will bury him in the Eretz Yisrael. He blesses Yoseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, elevating them to the status of his own sons as progenitors of tribes within the nation of Yisrael.

Yaakov desires to reveal the end of days to his children, but is prevented from doing so. Yaakov blesses his sons, assigning to each his role as a tribe: Yehudah will produce leaders, legislators and kings; priests will come from Levi, scholars from Issachar, seafarers from Zebulun, schoolteachers from Shimon, soldiers from Gad, judges from Dan, olive growers from Asher, and so on. Reuven is rebuked for "confusing his father's marriage"; Shimon and Levi for the massacre of Shechem and the plot against Yoseph. Naphtali is granted the swiftness of a deer, Benjamin the ferociousness of a wolf, and Yoseph is blessed with beauty and fertility.

A large funeral procession consisting of Yaakov's descendants, Pharaoh's ministers, the leading citizens of Egypt and the Egyptian cavalry accompanies Yaakov on his final journey to the Eretz Yisrael, where he is buried in the Machpeilah Cave in Hebron.

Yoseph, too, dies in Egypt, at the age of 110. He, too, instructs that his bones be taken out of Egypt and buried in the Eretz Yisrael, but this would come to pass only with the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt many years later. Before his passing, Yoseph conveys to the Children of Israel the testament from which they will draw their hope and faith in the difficult years to come: "G-d will surely remember you, and bring you up out of this land to the land of which He swore to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov."

Food for further thought……….

This week's parsha, Vayechi, begins: "And Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt) seventeen years, and the days of Yaakov was, the years of his life, one hundred and forty seven years. [47:28]"

What is the significance of the days and the years of his life? Furthermore, why does the passuk (verse) use the singular: “the days of Yaakov was" as opposed to the plural that "the days of Yaakov were?"

Answer to last week’s question in Parshat Vayigash

When Yaakov and family depart for Egypt, are they planning "yerida?" In other words, do they intend to make Egypt their permanent home, or are they planning just a 'short visit?'

The beginning and end of this week’s Parsha relate the deaths of two great figures, Yaakov Avinu and his son Yosef. Yaakov asked Yosef to swear that he would bury him in not Egypt, but rather with his forefathers, in Me’arat HaMachpeilah. To that request, Yosef responded, “Anochi E’eseh ChiDvarecha,” “I will act according to your words” (47:30).

The simple explanation of Yosef’s response is he promised to bury his father in Eretz Yisrael, as Yaakov requested. However, Rabbenu Bechaya (as well as other later Darshanim) quotes a Midrash that claims that Yosef was making a commitment to follow in his father’s footsteps, a promise that he would eventually ask his own family to bury him in Israel as well. According to this notion, Yosef modeled his own request for burial in Eretz Yisrael, which he made of Bnei Yisrael immediately before his own death, after his father’s request (see 50:24).

When comparing the two requests for burial in Eretz Yisrael, an important difference stands out. Yaakov requested that he not be buried in Egypt at all, but rather with his forefathers in Eretz Yisrael. Yosef merely asked to be taken up to Eretz Yisrael when God “[would] remember” B’nai Yisrael and take them to Eretz Yisrael. In contrast to his father, he does not seem to resist temporary burial in Egypt, requesting only that he eventually be permanently interred in Eretz Yisrael. How can we understand this difference?

A simple answer may be that Yosef’s stature in Egyptian politics may not have allowed for him to be immediately moved out of Egypt. That would have been too great an affront to Egypt and her leadership, and would have been politically unrealistic. Instead, Yosef made of his family the more realistic request that they eventually move him to Eretz Yisrael.

I would like to offer two other approaches. The first is based on an interesting insight the Parshanim share about Yaakov’s intention in requesting burial in Eretz Yisrael. Parshat Vayigash ended on an ominous note, telling us that Yaakov’s family had fully settled in Egypt (“Vayei’achazu Bah,” “they became entrenched in it”) and begun to flourish there (47:27). In light of the Jewish people’s increasing comfort with being in Galut, Yaakov’s demand that he not be buried there but in Eretz Yisrael seems quite powerful. He was stating unequivocally that Eretz Yisrael is their only permanent home.

Presumably, B’nai Yisrael were even more entrenched in Egypt over fifty years later when Yosef died, and his message to B’nai Yisrael had to be tempered for his times. Perhaps he knew that God intended for the nation to remain in Egypt for the “long haul,” so moving his body to Eretz Yisrael would not have been appropriate. Or perhaps B’nai Yisrael of his time would not have been as receptive to the dramatic type of statement Yaakov had made, and were able to digest only the softer message of Yosef’s request.

In Yosef’s case: If Yosef had been moved right away, B’nai Yisrael might have forgotten about him and his message over the years. But by staying with his people in Egypt, the unfinished business of eventually moving him to Eretz Yisrael would keep the message of Yosef’s request fresh in every generation’s mind. Knowing that they still needed to move Yosef would remind each generation in Egypt – and through this story, every one since – that their only permanent homeland was Eretz Yisrael.

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